"Spending most of my time on TikTok or go to sleep."
A 53-year-old man has been found guilty of murdering his daughter-in-law in her own home after a chilling trial exposed his lies.
Nadeem Mohammed Begum, a former security guard from Atherton, Wigan, was convicted at Manchester Crown Court for fatally strangling 24-year-old Mashal Ilyas.
He now faces life in prison after jurors rejected his claims of innocence.
Ms Ilyas was found dead at the foot of the stairs on October 9, 2024. She had been carrying out her daily chores that morning, including serving breakfast to the family, before she was fatally attacked.
Begum told the court he had been asleep when the killing happened.
But digital evidence from his TikTok account, along with forensic analysis, proved otherwise.
At around 7:30 am, he woke up, browsed TikTok, ate breakfast with his family, and then returned upstairs.
Asked in court what he did that morning, he said: “Spending most of my time on TikTok or go to sleep.”
He later added: “I was on TikTok again. I must have been lying on the bed, scrolling through videos, listening to music. That’s what I normally do.”
But data showed his phone was locked between 10 am and 11:05 am – the timeframe when Ms Ilyas was murdered.
At 10:15 am, she had been speaking to her mother. She said she would call back after tending to the washing machine. She never returned.
Begum claimed he woke at 10:30 am and found Ms Ilyas collapsed. But jurors found he had strangled her, leaving her body at the bottom of the stairs.
Instead of calling emergency services, he phoned his son Danish, not the victim’s husband Gulrez, saying there was an “emergency.”
Asked by his own barrister Ayaz Qazi KC whether he was medically trained, Begum replied:
“No, if somebody falls ill, you take them to the hospital.”
When Danish arrived, Begum claimed someone had broken into the house and attacked Ms Ilyas while she slept.
Emergency crews later declared her dead at the scene. A post-mortem revealed bruising to her neck, face and arm, along with a broken fingernail and bleeding on the brain.
DNA under Ms Ilyas’ nails and a scab on Begum’s neck suggested a struggle. The cause of death was ruled as neck pressure and airway obstruction.
Further examination of his phone uncovered an image of strangulation restraints.
When asked by Mr Qazi why the image was there, Begum said: “I don’t know.”
Throughout the trial, the prosecution laid bare his true view of his daughter-in-law.
Mark Rhind KC asked:
“Did you know Mashal as a person? Did you like her? Did you think she was nice?”
Begum replied: “Very respectful. She cooked good food.”
The prosecution continued: “Was she funny? Was she kind? Was she genuine?”
Begum answered: “She was good. She was a good person. She was good with family, spent time with them.”
Despite claiming he never “enforced” himself on anyone, a note Ms Ilyas had written on her phone suggested otherwise.
It read: “He wants perfection – behaves like an executioner king if it’s not right.”
Begum will be sentenced later in 2025 and will face a life sentence.
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